Arrow Arrow #3.21: “Al Sah-him

[Snow Queen]

This Canary Cry seems pretty useless so far...

 

[Rowsdower!]

That Canary Cry made me laugh. She just looked so ridiculous.

 

[The Apocalypse]

Oliver just looked at her with a "shut the hell up" look.

 

[Lencho01]

I really can't stand any Felicity scenes anymore

Same here.

 

[Snow Queen]

Oh Malcolm's still here. Right. Forgot about him.

 

[Rowsdower!]

It's funny to see all this Felicity hate. She's about the only thing that keeps me watching. I wish she'd defect to The Flash so I could take Arrow off my DVR list.

 

[Snow Queen]

Ehhhhhh with this whole marriage thing.

 

[zenith16]

As I said before, I hope that Oliver continues being Al Sah-him/Wareeth al-Ghul even if he goes back to being Green Arrow/Oliver Queen. And while Ra's is getting a bit drunk on his Lazarus juice; the LOA's war with HIVE makes them seem like the "good guys".

Yeah that story Ras told Oliver about Damien Dark & how the latter created Hive ,,, Then there's Ras al Ghoul before them ( the current Ras & Damien Dark )

I'm starting to wonder if they gonna say Vandal Savage was the first Ras al Ghoul ?

which will be sad if they wipe his origin as the other immortal big meta human of the DCU that knew Ras from past events different type of fall out. which his mortality wasn't from the pits .

While I'm not happy thea isn't showing any other side effect's of being psycho or Enhanced strength or agility which come as side effect's of pit use I did find helping team arrow interesting but I guess they wanted to focuse it's Oliver that went dark side let him still be stupid or let him never realize that made a grave error with that chose . he' d actually be struggling more if he saw his sister more unstable cause of how the pit works .

 

[Snow Queen]

Nice silent montage, that was good.

 

[Steyin]

They should have edited out the Empire State Building from the backdrop of Thea's loft.

 

[Primal Slayer]

Over all it was an enjoyable episode. Though it is ANNOYING as hell how they treat Nyssa like some amateur when compared to Oliver. She only spent 30 years training underneath some of the best people.

The Canary Cry looked good, sounded weak though. Sara's Canary Bomb did more damage, and this is suppose to be like 10x stronger then the Canary Bomb, so it should've brought Oliver to his knees unless Black Canary is able to adjust the power.

It was nice to see everyone going through an emotional roller coaster, Laurel trying to convince everyone to save Nyssa was greatness. Their dinner scene was refreshing since it was light for this show.

TOTES called the Nyssa/Oliver marriage, saw it coming from a mile away.

 

[Snow Queen]

They should have edited out the Empire State Building from the backdrop of Thea's loft.

...was that there? Because they'd have to try to mess up there, considering it's not filmed in New York.

 

[haephestus]

And with all the complaints about Arrow being a soap opera, forcing Nyssa, a gay woman at that, into a marriage to continue the bloodline is pretty high up there.

I know Arrow isn't exactly "The L Word" or "Queer as Folk" or even "Modern Family", but I would have thought that they would handle the concept of forcing a gay woman to marry a straight man to spare her life a little better.

By which I mean, they wouldn't consider that idea at all! Or if they wanted to follow that general story idea, have Nyssa suggest the marriage as a means of taking back leadership of the LOA and letting Oliver go back to vigilantism in Starling City.

 

[Steyin]

...was that there? Because they'd have to try to mess up there, considering it's not filmed in New York.

Yeah confused me too, plus the building in front of it is the Chrysler building. Hell even the MetLife building is there

 

[Deltron3030]

Wow that was a great episode. Maybe the best since season 3. I noticed something really annoying however about Laurel. She really doesn't seem to like Oliver. Her wanting to keep nyssa alive at the expense of everyone's safety which led to diggle's wife was just wrong. Sure maybe just a plot point, but it was almost the theme for the entire show - her against Oliver. Was sure hoping Laurel took a sword through the gut!

Thea was great in a limited role. She's going to be an interesting character moving forward me thinks.

 

[Snow Queen]

I know Arrow isn't exactly "The L Word" or "Queer as Folk" or even "Modern Family", but I would have thought that they would handle the concept of forcing a gay woman to marry a straight man to spare her life a little better.

By which I mean, they wouldn't consider that idea at all! Or if they wanted to follow that general story idea, have Nyssa suggest the marriage as a means of taking back leadership of the LOA and letting Oliver go back to vigilantism in Starling City.

I'll give them until next episode on this but I do hope they're not going to brush over this fact.

Yeah confused me too, plus the building in front of it is the Chrysler building. Hell even the MetLife building is there

I'm genuinely baffled right now as to how no one noticed this...

 

[Primal Slayer]

I'm surprised to see so many people around the net act as if Nyssa/Oliver getting hitched means that she is no longer bi-sexual/lesbian.

 

[DCMarv37]

I know I just keep piling on the character, but is Felicity's Oliver-focused default setting permanently stuck on "tears ready to fall & verge of crying voice'?? Swear to God, it seems to be; ever since the "... I don't want to be a woman you love" scene back in the first half of this season. And also, her final shot (in the ending montage of the rest of the team), that "crying"? Ugh.

Everything else about Al Sah-him was really good - the fight/action scenes were kick ass - even the flashbacks (now that we're finally finding out what actually happened to Akio).

 

[Deltron3030]

Man evil Oliver is pretty bad ass. For awhile there they were beginning to make his allies his equal. Really hope they keep this edge in skill. I mean he handed team arrow an ass whopping.

 

[Legendver2]

I swear, haven't seen Oliver this badass since season 2. As far as people saying Nyssa looked amateurish, I guess that's what happens when you start living a more peaceful life, you just lose that edge, regardless if you have 30 yrs more training on Oliver, who at that moment, was still fresh off training with his mind sharpened with a killer instinct up until their fight.

Somehow with the reveal of the Alpha Omega virus, I can't help but think now that Oliver has something up his sleeve, and this whole brain wash thing is just a ruse/charade. Although I think it WOULD be too much to ask if they made him pull a Bruce Wayne during Batman RIP when [BLACKOUT]after Bruce's mind get's psychologically messed up, he had a trigger word programmed in himself to bring forth a backup personality in the form of Batman of Zur En Arrh.[/BLACKOUT] Maybe Oliver did the same (highly doubt it) and just need's a code word to bring that forward.

Also, I find the whole brainwashing aspect of becoming the heir kind of pointless. The whole idea of picking Oliver as the heir was because of his force of will, which comes with who Oliver is. If you just brainwash him, doesn't that essentially erase his personality, the very thing that makes him the person that has that willpower to deserve being the heir? Or maybe the brainwash is just the beginning stages, and throughout time, his old personality will leak back out and merge with the new one, forming a twisted version of Oliver, instead of this robot killing machine we got, since both Maseo and Merlyn seem to still resemble themselves, but more twisted.

 

[The Chris]

Yeah I loved that. When he was fighting diggle I was like. He better whoop his ass because he was already better.

 

[BLACKVULCAN]

man! they really need to get laurel outta that dumb ass wig she look so much better with her natural hair (and HOTTER!) dug the whole" you need a costume" with diggle.. but then dig is always cool!"
what really made this episode was Thea. dug her "duh! my dads a supervillian and you left the door wide open!" comeback and the next arrow goes into your eye socket!" that was cool!
and they really need to stop with the flashbacks!! i feel like i am watching dragon ball z where its takes 15 episodes to move 5 feet! enough with that ^&*!

 

[Deltron3030]

Can we please keep Al Sah-Him? He's far better than Oliver Queen.

Amen brother amen! Evil Oliver could be a true vigilante. Would be great to see him interfere with team arrow and resort to killing.

 

[DCMarv37]

I also think that Oliver was (is) faking the "reprogramming" too. He was a bit too hesitant to kill in a few scenes there.

I did snicker at Ra's asking Oliver if knew what as in the vial. Uhm, if he really is mind-screwed to not be Oliver Queen anymore - and which you seem to really believe, for some reason - why would he remember anything about the Alpha/Omega weapon?? Why ask him? I don't think its a true "mind wipe" thing anyways, just a reconditioning to ignore who you were and be who you now are (Al Sah-him). After all, Maseo still remembers who he was (wife and all).

I think another clue to Oliver not being truly "brain washed" is the flashbacks. Yes, its a story device for the viewers, but I think it was meant to signify that Oliver was truly remembering the past, his past.


ETA: Nitpick time... you really store a very deadly bioweapon in the pommel of a sword you fight with?? Seems... prudent. Not!

 

[Herolee10]

It kind of makes me wonder though.

I mean for those that have seen the recent Flash Trailers (which I'm assuming most of us here have done by now), we know that Oliver is going to help Barry soon in his fight against the Reverse Flash.

But Oliver (in his current state) doesn't look like he'd give a rat's ass about anyone other than the League at this point. And even if he somehow regains some of his conscious, would he still be allowed to be a part of the league if his morality came back to the point where he'd be willing to help Barry again?